Radical with David Platt
Sin In the Camp – Part 1
We have sought leaders without conviction, devised salvation without dedication, manufactured worship without humiliation, and created a god without retribution. In this message on Exodus 32:1–6, Pastor David Platt reminds us of the sin that we corporately confess.
From unexpected olympic champion to martyr in China. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Eric Liddell’s win in the 1924 games.
In Glory Road, Radical’s new narrative podcast, we’ll follow Liddell’s remarkable journey, and discover the current state of the gospel in the countries he knew best.
Start listening to this 6 part series now everywhere you listen to podcasts or find out more at radical.net/gloryroad
We have sought leaders without conviction, devised salvation without dedication, manufactured worship without humiliation, and created a god without retribution. In this message on Exodus 32:1–6, Pastor David Platt reminds us of the sin that we corporately confess.
From unexpected olympic champion to martyr in China. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Eric Liddell’s win in the 1924 games.
In Glory Road, Radical’s new narrative podcast, we’ll follow Liddell’s remarkable journey, and discover the current state of the gospel in the countries he knew best.
Start listening to this 6 part series now everywhere you listen to podcasts or find out more at radical.net/gloryroad
You are listening to Radical with David Platt, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from pastor, author and teacher David Platt. I want us to dive this morning into a picture of sin in the camp. You look at your worship guide, the notes. At the top it says sin in the camp, part one, which indicates that there's a couple more parts to come. But I want us to look this morning at Exodus 32. You're wondering well, why do you have us in 1 Corinthians 10? The reason is because 1 Corinthians 10 in the New Testament tells us how to understand Exodus, chapter 32. And so, before we go to Exodus 32, I want you to listen to 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 6.
Speaker 1:Paul in the New Testament says these words. He says these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry. He's quoting there from the Old Testament. Anybody know where he's quoting from Exodus, chapter 32, verse what Six? Remember the little note you got in your Bible Exodus 32, 6. He quotes from there. He continues on Go to verse 11 in 1 Corinthians 10. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So here's what the New Testament is telling us. The passage we're about to read in Exodus chapter 32 happened to them, for us, and we're intended to learn from the example of Exodus chapter 32 and heed the warning of Exodus chapter 32. In other words, this story from the very beginning of the Old Testament is not just an isolated ancient picture of something that happened a long time ago. It is a commentary on our spiritual lives today. It's a commentary on the church today. So, with that understanding, let's take a hike back to the left and go to Exodus chapter 32. It's the second book in the Bible, exodus chapter 32. And in just a minute we're going to start in verse 1. The context here now we were in Exodus 33 a couple of weeks ago Just want to remind you what's going on At the very beginning of Exodus.
Speaker 1:God's people are slaves in Egypt. He delivers them out of slavery in Egypt, leads them through the middle of the Red Sea, performing miracle after miracle, sending food from heaven and water from rocks. God providing them in ways for them, in ways they never could have imagined, having saved them from slavery. He meets with them at a place called Mount Sinai and he shows His glory in a consuming fire, bills of smoke coming up from the mountain, and God, god, enters into covenant with them and he gives them His word and he gives them His promises, and it's like the beginning of a marriage relationship, this covenant, and that covenant is confirmed in Exodus, chapter 24. And then Moses goes back up to meet with God on the mountain, and the people of God are at the bottom of the mountain. And so, while their representative is meeting with the God of the universe at the top of the mountain, the people are at the bottom of the mountain, and I want you to listen to what they're doing.
Speaker 1:Chapter 32, verse one when the people saw that Moses was so long and coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him. Aaron answered them Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing and bring them to me. So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said these are your gods, o Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.
Speaker 1:So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. Then the Lord said to Moses go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said these are your gods, o Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. I have seen these people, the Lord said to Moses, and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation. Dear God, we pray that you would help us to realize what causes your holy anger to burn like this. God, help us to see their sin, but not just their sin. God, we pray that you would help us to see ourselves in the mirror of this text. Help us to see ourselves in the mirror of this text. Help us to see our sin and help us to see your salvation in Christ, in whom we study and we sing and we preach and we pray Amen. Amen and we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:The focus in this passage is not on any one individual's sin. Instead, the focus in Exodus 32 is on the people's sin. You hear God say to Moses in verse 7, go down, because your people have become corrupt. As a result, our time together in this text is not focused on any one individual's sin in the church. The focus of our time together this morning is not on this person's sin or that person's sin in the church. The focus of our time together this morning is to focus on our sin as the church we saw a couple of weeks ago reminded ourselves we are a people, we are a community of faith. We are in this thing together, not just a bunch of individuals represented around this room. We're a community of faith, the people of God. And so, as we look at this text, we're looking at our sin, not my sin, your sin, our sin together.
Speaker 1:And what I want us to do this morning is I want us to see four ways that we mirror in the people of God today the sin of the people of God in Exodus 32. Now I know that as soon as I say that, you're thinking well, we don't have any golden calves. On the contrary, I am convinced that the contemporary church is filled with golden calves. On the contrary, I am convinced that the contemporary church is filled with golden calves. In fact, take it a step deeper I'm convinced the church at Brook Hills is filled with golden calves all across this room this morning. And we need to see ourselves in the mirror of Exodus 32. And we need to see our sin in the light of theirs. So, corporate confession. Number one how are we the same as them? Number one we have sought leaders without conviction In the church. We have sought leaders without conviction.
Speaker 1:You go to the beginning of Exodus, chapter 32, and you realize that Moses and Joshua are gone. They're up on the mountain. Moses and Joshua have gone up. Moses is actually hanging out with God up there Joshua is just chilling by himself. And Exodus, chapter 24, verse 14, says that Moses told the people Aaron will lead you while I am gone. And then it says when the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and son, come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him. You've got to realize when they're talking about Moses being gone so long, he was up on the mountain for 40 days, just over a month total. For 40 days, just over a month total. And all of a sudden they're using it's a derogatory term this fellow Moses in the original language of the Old Testament. Where's he gone? Where is our God? This is astonishing that the same people who had been miraculously delivered out of Egypt, who had seen a sea split in half, who had seen food come down from heaven and water come from rocks, who had engaged this God at Mount Sinai after a month, are turning to themselves and saying we can't trust this God and they're fashioning a golden calf. They come to Aaron, the leader who was with them, and they say Aaron, make us some gods. And do you know what Aaron does? He does exactly what the people wanted him to do. The leader of God's people gave this sinful people exactly what they wanted.
Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen, we are immersed in a church culture, immersed in a church led by men and women who believe their primary obligation is to give a sinful people exactly what they want. We don't have to go very far in the church today to find people talking about how the church is intended. The purpose of the church is to meet the felt needs of people. In fact, there are many guys who would say I should never preach a sermon entitled Sin in the Camp. Like that's going to get people excited on Sunday morning. Oh, sin in the camp, this is going to be great. You don't talk about sin in the camp. You give us what we want and as long as people like you and you draw the crowds and you are successful, regardless of a leader's prayer life or a leader's knowledge of the Word of God, or a leader's holiness or purity, we want his popularity. Instead, we want him or her to give us what we want.
Speaker 1:We want leaders who make us feel good and who make us happy, and I am convinced, ladies and gentlemen, that I would be committing the sin of Aaron himself if I stood in front of the people of God today, immersed in an idolatrous Christianity that loves money, sex power position, family sports and success more than we love God family sports and success more than we love God. If I led us in a comfortable coffee house Christianity filled with sermons on brokenness and grace that comfort us in our sin but never confront us in our sin. If I led us in a cultural Christianity that exalts and prioritizes man-centered traditions over God-centered truth, if I let us in a casual Christianity that promises you everything but costs you nothing. People of God, we have rebelled against a holy God in all of his glory and we have sought out leaders who have no conviction about that, either in their personal lives or in their leadership in the church, and we need to repent. Please don't think for a second. I don't catch the gravity of even standing before you and saying that as your leader. We have sought leaders without conviction. Second confession we have devised salvation without dedication. We have devised salvation without dedication.
Speaker 1:You've got to realize that in Egypt the people of God had been surrounded by idolatry, that what they're doing here in Exodus, chapter 32, is exactly what they had seen and experienced in Egypt, that it was common in Egypt to craft idols represented by animals calf. God brought them up out of Egypt, saved them from that, delivered them from that. And yet, as soon as they have the opportunity saved from Egypt we see them doing exactly what they did in Egypt, exactly what the Egyptians did, in fact. It's really interesting. Go to verse four with me. It says he took what they handed him, aaron, and he made it into an idol, cast in the shape of calf, fashioning with a tool. Then they said listen to what they said. They said these are your gods, o Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.
Speaker 1:Now, what's really interesting here? If you go back to Exodus, chapter 20, go back there with me, verse 1. This is when's really interesting here. If you go back to Exodus, chapter 20, go back there with me, verse 1. This is when God gave His law, gave the Ten Commandments to His people, demonstrated His covenant to them, when God entered into this marriage relationship, so to speak, with them at Mount Sinai. Listen to what he started off by saying. Exodus, chapter 20, verse 1. See if it sounds familiar. Exodus 20, verse 1. God spoke all these words. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Speaker 1:When they get to this point in Exodus, chapter 32, they quote Exodus 21. Instead, they put this golden calf and the gods it represents in God's place. This is breathtaking. In a sense, they are claiming their salvation while they indulge in their sin. The blood of the covenant has barely had time to dry in Exodus and they're dancing around, indulging in revelry, using their salvation itself as a justification for their sin. Claiming salvation while they indulge in sin, indulge in sin.
Speaker 1:The story is repeated over and over and over again in the church today. We can live however we want. We think. After all, we're saved. We tell people in the church that if you pray this prayer, then it won't matter how you live the rest of your life, as long as you prayed this prayer, you're going to heaven. Prayed this prayer, you're going to heaven. And, as a result, scores of people are indulging in sin, year after year after year after year and thinking well, sure am glad I prayed that prayer, so I'm okay.
Speaker 1:This is radically unbiblical salvation. Now please don't get me wrong here. Please don't get me wrong. I am not saying that our salvation is based on our works. Salvation is based on our works. On the contrary, our salvation is based on the work of Christ and Christ alone. It is his work alone that is the basis for our salvation. It is by grace. You have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, so that no one can boast no question about that. Saved by grace, through faith alone, christ alone.
Speaker 1:But listen to what that says You've been saved by grace, through faith. It's a gift of God. It's a free gift of God. I remind you, this free gift of God involves a new heart, a new heart that doesn't return to sin, a new heart that doesn't delight in indulging in sin. When Christ saves us, he gives us a radically new heart that delights in honoring him and delights in glorifying his name, a heart that is set free from sin, so that you don't live in sin any longer. And so this business of praying a prayer and then living your life after that prayer just like it was before that prayer does violence to the very salvation you claim.
Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen, you have a new heart. You've been set free from sin. You've been set free from sin. You're free from sin, you're forgiven of sin. Christ has regenerated your heart and he has given you power over sin. He has not brought you up out of Egypt to go back and hang out the rest of your life in Egypt, given you power over sin. He has not brought you up out of Egypt to go back and hang out the rest of your life in Egypt. He delivered you from that, jesus. Nowhere, nowhere in Scripture does Jesus intend to save you from your sin so that you can live in your sin. He saves you from your sin so that you can live a life dedicated to Him and His glory. Christ does that in you. It is all His work, by grace, through faith, but nowhere, nowhere, does he give us a picture of salvation without dedication. This is the very gospel that's at stake and we need to confess the way we have perverted that gospel and missed out on its beauty. We have perverted that gospel and missed out on its beauty. We have devised salvation without dedication. Confession number three we have manufactured worship without humiliation. We have manufactured worship without humiliation. This is fascinating.
Speaker 1:In verse five, listen to what Aaron does. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar, an altar in front of the calf and he announced listen to his announcement tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord Altar in front of a golden calf and tomorrow we're going to have a festival to the Lord. So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed, burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Do you see what's happening here? Presented fellowship offerings. Do you see what's happening here? They are taking the very guidelines that God had established for his worship and they are participating in those guidelines, yet missing out on the God they were supposed to be worshiping. Now they say we're gonna celebrate a festival to the say we're going to celebrate a festival to the Lord. Does this look like a festival to the Lord? It has all the outward signs that God had set up, but it's missing the very object of the worship.
Speaker 1:Now, who were they worshiping if they weren't worshiping God? Look at verse 6. It helps us out. Last part after they give these offerings, it says afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. This is the same word that is used other places in the Old Testament to talk about sexual immorality. That is dishonoring before God. So in this festival, while they give their offerings. They're indulging in revelry. Who are they worshiping? They're not worshiping God, they're worshiping themselves. But don't miss it they are worshiping themselves under the guise of worshiping God. They are worshiping themselves under the guise of worshiping God.
Speaker 1:Do you think it's possible for us to do the exact same thing today I'm talking about in this room? We know how this deal works we come in and we sing and we pray and we listen and we sing and we pray and we listen and we give and we go home. The reality, though, is much deeper than that. We sing what we like to sing, and if we don't like what what we sung, then we let others know about that. And we pray, but not too long, not in a way that would make us feel uncomfortable, not in a way that would stretch us Pray quickly, move on to something else, and we listen as long as we like what the guy in front of us has to say, and scores of us. As soon as we're finished listening, it's time to leave, regardless of any other components of worship, and we give, but not really. About 10% of the people who attend the church at Brook Hills regularly are committed to giving About 10% of us, for the other 90% of us no need to make any sacrifices along those lines and we go home to go on with the rest of our week. Who have we worshipped? We have catered everything to revolve around us.
Speaker 1:Where is brokenness and humility in contemporary worship? Where are the people of Nehemiah 8, who, when the word is opened, they rise to their feet and they lift up their hands and they start to shout out amen, amen, and they bow down and worship the Lord with their faces on the ground? When does this happen among the people of God today? Where is Ezra, who got up, he says out of self-abasement, with his cloak and tunic torn and fell on his knees and spread his hands out before God and called out I am too ashamed or too disgraced to even lift my face before you. Where are the people of Ezra 10, who gathered together to weep before the Lord and together to confess their unfaithfulness to their covenant God for hours at a time? Where is the psalmist who cries out Lord, hear my cry.
Speaker 1:Where is this kind of brokenness and humility and worship? Well, that's too extreme for us. It's too extreme for us. It's too extreme for us. God, help us when brokenness and humility and worship and expressions thereof are too extreme for our worship. Meanwhile, god is sitting back and he says this is the one I esteem, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word. Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. You will not despise, god says, if my people who are called by my name will do what Will, humble themselves and pray and seek my face. Then I'll hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.
Speaker 1:Where is this kind of brokenness and humility in worship? Ladies and gentlemen, if authentic expressions of brokenness and humility do not have a place in our worship, then God does not have a place in our worship. We have manufactured worship with no humiliation, no humility and brokenness before a holy God Worshiping self under the guise of worshiping God. We have sought leaders without conviction. We have devised salvation without dedication. We have manufactured worship without conviction. We have devised salvation without dedication. We have manufactured worship without humiliation.
Speaker 1:Confession number four we have created a God without retribution. We have created a God without retribution. This is the beauty of the golden calf. You could set up an altar, you can give offerings and you can indulge in all sorts of revelry, whatever you want to do? And what's the golden calf going to do to you? He'll just sit there. He'll do nothing.
Speaker 1:Rc Sproul summed it up best. He said the cow gave no law and demanded no obedience. It had no wrath or justice or holiness to be feared. It was deaf, dumb and impotent, but at least it could not intrude on their fun and call them to judgment. This was a religion designed by men, practiced by men and, ultimately, useless for men. Isn't this what we want? Isn't this what we want? Don't we want a God who is okay with our indulgent lifestyles? Don't we want a God who will not intrude on our fun? Don't we want a God who will allow us to enjoy all the things our flesh enjoys? This is the core issue, isn't it? We've created a new God, a God of love, compassion, love, compassion, who has no holiness or wrath or justice to be feared, a God who is okay with our independence and okay with our rights to live. However we want to live, a God who would not think of disciplining or punishing us or those around us for our sin, a God who would never consign someone to eternal hell as long as they gave it their best shot in this life. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not God. This is a golden calf. It is a golden calf.
Speaker 1:The God of the Bible is a God of retribution, a God of holiness and wrath, whose holy anger is dead set against sin, and by His holiness he is obligated to obliterate sinners. Now, that doesn't feel good, some of you think. Well, aren't you overstating the case a little bit, a little too dramatic? Listen to verse 10. Leave me alone, moses, so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. There is no stronger language than that.
Speaker 1:And, ladies and gentlemen, we are them. We are them. This is not just a story from thousands of years ago. We are them. That's the whole point of what 1 Corinthians 10 was telling us. We are them ago. We are them. That's the whole point of what 1 Corinthians 10 was telling us. We are them.
Speaker 1:God help us to realize we are them. We have sought leaders without conviction, we have devised salvation without dedication, we have manufactured worship with no humiliation and we have created a God without retribution. We are them. God, help us to realize that and then to realize what they needed, because we need what they needed, and they did not need a new leader, they did not need a new exodus. They did not need new worship practices. They needed a Savior. They needed someone to save them from their idolatry. They needed someone to save them from their sin. They needed someone to free them from their sin. And, ladies and gentlemen, we have one. We have one. God help us to realize that we are them and we need what they need. God help us to realize the depth of our need for a Savior.
Speaker 1:And when we do, when we do, and when we do when we do, when we confess that kind of need, god, in His grace and His mercy and His power, takes the depth of corporate confession and he turns it into corporate celebration Because of a Savior. Because of a Savior, because, yes, yes, we've created a God without retribution. We confess that. We realize, ladies and gentlemen, Jesus takes our retribution. He takes it, yes, yes, yes, god has holy anger. Yes, god has wrath that is dead set against sin. Yes, the payment for sin is death and destruction. But, ladies and gentlemen, jesus Christ has taken all of that wrath and all of that holy anger upon himself instead of you or me. He has taken our place. He has taken the retribution due our sin upon himself. Do not. Do not try to minimize the wrath of God. When you do, you devalue the worth of the cross. Jesus took the payment of our sin upon himself so that we would not have to experience that. He conquered sin, did a funeral on Friday, a funeral I was privileged to do.
Speaker 1:A man in his young 30s named Casey Black, who just a couple of months ago was the epitome of health on the outside, went to the doctor and found out that cancer was eating him alive on the inside and two short months later he passed away. This Tuesday night, whenever you're a pastor or a family member or a friend and you're going into a hospital room where you know the situation is so grave, you struggle with what to say. What are you going to say? You say maybe I'll say I'm sorry this is happening or I wish this weren't happening. Casey Black posed a real dilemma for people who came to visit him in the hospital on Tuesday, because when people walked in to see him on that bed, he was pointing up in the air and laughing, with a smile on his face, saying I'm going to meet Jesus today. What do you say to that? I'm sorry, it just doesn't seem appropriate anymore. I wish that weren't. No, you walk away from that room thinking I'd kind of like to go with him.
Speaker 1:We have nothing to fear from sin, death and the grave. Jesus has taken the retribution of Almighty God upon himself and he has given us eternal life. Jesus takes our retribution. And where we have manufactured worship without humiliation don't miss this Jesus exalts us in our humiliation. Matthew 23, 12,. Remember what he said Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be what Exalted. Don't miss the beauty of what true worship is about.
Speaker 1:When you fall before your God on your face, when you come before him in brokenness and humility, it's at that point that you no longer have to do the lifting up. God Jesus himself does the lifting up for you. He lifts you up. So fall on your faces, fall on your faces in worship and let Jesus Christ lift you up. He takes our retribution, he exalts us in our humiliation and he enables our dedication.
Speaker 1:Don't walk away from what we were talking about earlier salvation without dedication and think well, I really got to work on some things. I got to muster things up and do better in my Christian life to show that my salvation is real. On the contrary, you've missed the whole point. It wasn't about you from the start. It is Christ in you enabling you to live out this Christ life. It is Christ in you empowering you over sin, day in and day out. It is a constant life of faith, not just a moment of faith. A life of faith not just a moment of salvation, a lifetime of salvation where Christ himself enables your dedication to his glory. Christ does that, and Jesus.
Speaker 1:When it comes to leaders we have sought who have no conviction, jesus alone restores our conviction. Here's the beauty when we see our need for a Savior, we look to Christ to lead His church. Oh God, help us to look to Christ to lead His church. Oh God, help us to look to Christ to lead his church. And God, fill your church with leaders who value Christ, who treasure Christ, who have Christ lead in and through them. God may it be so. We hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of Radical with David Platt. For more resources from David Platt, we invite you to visit radicalnet.